The Keeper of the Balance
by Rei0013
Summary: Lucinda Wrencia Cordova I was a legend among her people. And yet one day, Wren all but disappeared from the planet, never to be seen again. There were many legends as to why, but each centered on the same peculiar thing: a strange man in a blue box.
1. Prolouge

Lucinda Wrencia Cordova I was a legend among the people of Antares Beta. She had revolutionized the entire planet and the way it was run, all before her 14th birthday. She had seemingly infinite knowledge of things even beyond their world, and she had used this knowledge to defend Antares Beta on several occasions. She was a hero, said to know everything from the names of every star in the sky to the many wonders of the mythical yellow fruit know as the banana.

The oddest thing about Wren, as her admirers fondly called her, was her pale freckled complexion and ginger hair, unlike that of any Acamarin or Alazarin. Some said she must be Alasheru, the Acamar goddess, regenerated into a physical form and sent to save the planet from itself.

The only people who could remember when Wren resembled any other Alazarin little girl were the long lived Alazarin themselves, and the only one who knew the actual reasons for her seemingly magical transformation and endless knowledge was her husband Davon.

And then one day, Wren all but disappeared from the planet, never to be seen again. The world ended mere days later, and the people of Antares Beta were scattered throughout the universe. There were many legends as to why this happened, but each centered on the same peculiar thing:

A strange hornless man in a blue box.


	2. Chapter 1

Often times, at least since Fabian had passed away, Wren would sit on the cliff next to the house she and Davon had inherited from their teacher and stare up at the stars wistfully, as if she belonged there and not on the ground. Long ago, nearly 400 years prior, Wren had watched someone else sitting in the same exact manner, gazing at the sky. She would think of him from time to time, but time had made the memories fuzzy it seemed. Not just her memories. His too. They seemed to be fading, and this disturbed Wren. But when she looked to the stars, she felt she could remember as if it were yesterday.

She had been 13 years old, a mere infant by Alazarin standards, trapped in an academy that could only be described as evil. And if the place itself were evil, the woman who ran it was even worse. The academy itself was merely a front however for the far more sinister activities which went on in its basement. There, children were being converted, via an excruciatingly painful operation, into batteries to supply the entire planet with power.

Wren herself had been destined for this fate when in her desperation she had managed to contact the Doctor, who came to her rescue not long after. In a misguided attempt to gain contact with him, Wren had copied and absorbed the Time Lord's entire mind into her own, and after that she had to work very hard to get him to help her. However, things ended up not going according to plan and Wren and the Doctor ended up fleeing for their lives to the Alazarin village where she had met Fabian and Davon. Of course, the children still needed rescuing, so they returned to the academy and all its evil in an attempt to free them. Wren ended up sacrificing herself to save the Doctor.

That is when the unexpected happened. The Time Lord mind in Wren, combined with the Doctor's own DNA and the energy her Alazarin mind produced reacted and regenerated her into an Alazarin Time Lord, a completely unique entity unlike any being the universe.

The Doctor left not long after, promising to return. He had yet to do so.

Again on this night Wren found herself there staring at the heavens, lost in their vastness. She was feeling especially sentimental this night, so much that she couldn't help but feel a profound sadness.

'Maybe this is why he's always so sad and lonely,' she mused, and then laughed slightly to herself. But the laugh was short lived, and quickly transformed itself into a deep sigh.

"Oh, Doctor," she said to no one in particular. "Wonder where you are now…"

One of Wren's hearts almost stopped cold when she heard from behind her a response.

"I'm right here."

Wren snapped around. Standing in her garden, just a dozen or so feet away, was a tall, slim man in a brown suit with unkempt brown hair and a smile on his face. The Doctor.

For the first time in hundreds of years, Wren felt the Doctor's feelings flood into her mind. Joy, exuberance, loneliness, longing, every one of them swirling around her mind as if they were hers. Hearts racing, Wren couldn't help but grin as she walked over to where he was.

"Look at that, you finally decided to make good on that threat to keep an eye on me. And you haven't aged a day."

"No, I daresay I haven't," the Doctor, grinning as well. "But look at you! You were a pipsqueak the last time I saw you. How long has it been for you?"

"Three hundred and ninety seven years," Wren replied. "You?"

"Blimey, not even 15 minutes."

Wren just laughed.

"Couldn't wait to see me, huh?"

The Doctor's expression softened and he was about to respond when another voice called out.

"Doctor? Doctor is that you?"

Davon ran out towards the two of them. Despite the fact that they were the same age, Davon looked so much older than his wife, and so much more tired. Wren's Time Lord blood had kept her young, and though Alazarin were long lived, they did age at a much faster rate than a Time Lord.

Davon smiled, seeing the Doctor.

"You came back! This is wonderful, how have you been?" As he said this, Davon put his arm around Wren and they both smiled.

"Oh, I'm good, good… how about yourself?" The Doctor said jovially. But Wren felt an odd sinking feeling emanating from the Doctor, and her smile faltered. Their eyes met for a second, and Wren felt she had to look away or else she might be sick. Even if she hadn't been able to feel his emotions, his eyes would have given everything away. They were filled with nothing short of absolute anguish and yearning. And as the two men prattled away about the garden and how it seemed to thriving, Wren couldn't quite bring herself to look him in the eye again. So absorbed in her racing thoughts, Wren didn't even realize at first when the Doctor spoke directly to her.

"Huh?" she said, looking up suddenly.

"I said, I left the TARDIS in the woods, so I should probably be going now. I just wanted to check up on you before I went elsewhere."

"Elsewhere," Wren repeated hollowly. "You mean like Ood Sphere elsewhere?" The Doctor gave a sort of a chuckle.

"Sometimes I forget how much you know," he said in an amused way. "Yes, I'll be going there eventually I suppose, might have a little fun here and there."

"Mind if I walk you to your vessel then?" Wren asked, trying to sound as if her motives were as innocent as possible. The Doctor smiled and offered for an arm for her to take. Wren looked up to Davon, gave a small smile and then went with the Doctor towards the woods. Once safely ensconced within the trees, Wren halted and turned to her fellow Time Lord.

"All right. What is this all about?" she demanded.

"You know what it's about," the Doctor replied in a slightly ominous tone. He looked into Wren's eyes, and Wren almost felt as if it was burned to look back.

"Doctor…"

She wasn't given a chance to continue as the Doctor grabbed a hold of her by the shoulders.

"Wren! You... I… " But the words died in his throat. As he let go of her Wren could tell there was something very important he needed to tell her, something it pained him to say. "No… no, I can't. Wren… I need you to come with me."

Wren was shocked. All she had wanted back then was to go with him, to be by his side, but now… everything had changed.

"No," she said wide eyed. "No, I can't."

This seemed to frustrate the Doctor.

"When I left fifteen minutes ago, you were so beyond gaga for me I didn't know what to do. Now I come back, and you could care less about me! Now! When you aren't one 69th my age and… and…" Again he trailed off, seemingly unable to continue.

"You didn't come back," Wren said weakly. Tears streamed down her face. The feelings for him she had worked so hard to suppress were coming to the surface.

The look on the Doctor's face seemed to relax a bit, and Wren felt an inkling of sympathy coming from him.

"I told you I would though," he said softly. "Why didn't you wait?"

"Easy for you to say!" Wren shot back angrily. "While you might have been deprived of my presence for all of fifteen minutes, I've had to take the long road. Nearly four hundred years with a head full of memories that aren't even mine, to remind me of what I'd lost! And the only person I could turn to was Davon, he's the only one on the planet who understands the true capacity of what I went through as a child. Everyone else is convinced I'm some sort of God! They have no idea…"

"Well that doesn't matter now," the Doctor said.

"Of course it matters! How could you-"

The Doctor cut her off, kissing her. Wren went limp in his arms. As he pulled his lips away from hers gently, he went to whisper something in her ear.

"Come with me," he said. "We can see the stars."

"I can't," Wren said tearfully. "They need me here."

"I need you too," the Doctor said desperately. "We're the only two left, and-"

"Oh is that it then?" Wren said her anger flaring once again. She stepped back from the Doctor, trying her hardest to block out the nauseating amounts of sorrow coming from him, but it was far too overpowering. "You're only concerned with repopulating the Time Lord race? You sicken me. You seem to forget the horns on my head Doctor! I might have two hearts, but I'm not a child of Gallifrey. I'm an Alazarin of Antares Beta."

With that she stormed off in a frustrated rage. Contrary to what she anticipated, and almost what she hoped, the Doctor did not try to stop her. He just stood there with the most pathetic look on his face, seemingly on the verge of tears. Wren felt her stomach lurch uncomfortably. What was she doing to him? He'd seen his hearts shattered to pieces so many times. How could she be so cruel?

She wasn't given much time to think however, as a deafening explosion came from the direction of the Alazarin village. Fear jolted through her. What could that have possibly been? All sorts of wild thoughts raced through her mind, thoughts she didn't even want to begin to entertain. Startled, the Doctor followed.

As she approached Fabian's garden, Wren's worst fears were suddenly realized. The hut was in ruins. Flames and pieces of scattered wreckage were everywhere. And Davon, Davon, who she had had lived with for three hundred and ninety seven years, the only one who truly understood her, lay pinned beneath a heavy hunk of wood. Wren shrieked in horror, running to him and throwing the beam off his legs. However, as she did this Wren mad the horrifying discover that Davon's legs were gone, replaced by a sight too awful and grisly to imagine.

"No! Davon, please no." Tears freely streamed down her face as she fell to the ground beside her husband. Davon looked up, his eyes strangely unfocused and dreamy, most likely due to the blood loss.

"Wren," he said in a quiet and strangely happy voice. "Oh good, I was hoping you'd make it before I had to go."

"What are you talking about?" Wren said, trying not to let on how bad things seemed, but she knew.

"You're such a bad liar," he said, still smiling in the same odd way. "Wren… you're so lovely. My lovely Wren."

"No," she repeated weakly. "No."

"Promise me you'll stay safe," Davon said. "Go with the Doctor. Promise me you will."

"I promise," Wren said tearfully.

"Well, that was easy then," Davon stated plainly. And he died. Just like that. Agony coursed through Wren. Her best friend, dead and gone forever.

Wren turned abruptly to see the Doctor, standing there with the same sad look on his face. Wren found his unchanging expression enraging. What right did he have to sadness?

"Stop!" she cried at him. "Look at you standing there. Go away! This is all your fault!"

The Doctor did not say anything to the contrary, but nor did he move. He just stared, in his eyes the sadness of a world.

"Stop it!" she screamed. "Get away from me!"

"I can't do that," the Doctor said simply.

Wren just glared at him, cheeks still wet with tears. However, it seemed the Doctor had seen something she hadn't, because his expression changed in a heartbeat and shock rebounded into Wren.

"Run!" he shouted. Wren listened immediately, remembering all too well what had happened the last time the Doctor had told her to do so. She took off in the direction of the TARDIS, trying not to focus too hard on the awful noises coming from behind her. Explosions, shouts, strange metallic clanking. Instead, Wren focused on making it to the ship. As she pounded closer and closer to the TARDIS, she began to wonder how she could open it without the Doctor there, but no sooner had she thought this than the Doctor ran up behind her, snapping his fingers and causing the door to open before them. They hurdled themselves into the vessel and the Doctor slammed the door shut before bounding for the TARDIS's controls. As it was taking off, the Doctor turned to Wren suddenly.

"What are you doing?" he half screamed. "You know how to fly this thing as well as I do, help me!"

"What's happening Doctor?" she asked, a slight quake in her voice.

"There isn't time, I'll explain-"

"Doctor." Wren gave the Time Lord a piercing look, and he relented.

"Your planet exists in my past as far as timelines go, somewhere around the time of the rise of the Dalek Empire. The Daleks will destroy it in three days time. I tried to tell you, I'm sorry."

Wren felt her hearts sink like stones.

"So Davon was killed-?"

"By Daleks. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."

Wren did not even bother asking if there was any way to prevent her planet's downfall, because she knew without even asking it was a fixed point in history. She could feel it. And she could feel that her escape was as well. Her face a grim mask of sorrow, she slowly approached the controls of the TARDIS. The Doctor watched her with sad eyes, seemingly not noticing the smoke billowing forth from the control center. Without warning, Wren violently seized a mallet the Doctor had left out, and hit the TARDIS with all her might.

"Now is not the time for you to be acting up!" she shouted at the ship. It seemed to listen. The Doctor just stared incredulously. Not just anyone was able to boss his ship around. It seemed Wren truly was a real Time Lady.

* * *

_Hey! Lookie here I'm back! And I brought Wren with me!_

_So I've been moved to write a sequel to Dark Academy. Yeah... crazy right? I was curious to see how Wren might develop as an adult character, and seeing as dear Mr. David Tennant will not be in any future episodes of DW, imagining my own seems like a good alternative, no? I don't even know if the last one was even well received, since nobody really reviewed it, but the feedback I did manage to get was good and well... here I am. _

_So whaddya think so far? Am I jumping in too fast, killing off former main characters too quickly, introducing too much romance? As for killing off former main characters... yeah, sorry. I liked Davon too, it's just... it was his time to go. Now as for the romance, I guess it doesn't come as that much of a shock considering how strongly it was hinted at in the first story, but keep in mind things might not be exactly what they seem. Especially on the Doctor's part. . ._

_I will say no more on that topic._

_Now, I will have you know I spent and ENTIRE HOUR of my life researching Daleks and trying to wrap my head around whether or not all of their history was wiped out along with them in the Last Great Time War. As far as I can tell, a fixed point in history is a fixed point in history, Time War or no. I guess we can only assume the Daleks here exterminating Antares Beta roundabouts the early 22nd century C.E. had not yet developed Temporal Shift capabilities and therefore would no longer have been around by the time the Time War ensued, and thusly were not wiped out. I guess that works? . _

_My brain hurts._


	3. Chapter 2

Almost any Alazarin historian you talk to will tell you that the beginning of the end for Antares Beta came three days before the planet actually fell and its former inhabitants were scattered across the far reaches of the universe. That was when the Dalek Kind, the Great Destroyers had appeared, and that is when the all powerful Lucinda Wrencia Cordova I vanished, seemingly without a trace. There was one unexplainable event however that corresponded almost exactly with the arrival of the Daleks: the Flight of Blue Box. There had been only one witness, who incidentally was also the last to see Wren before her disappearance, a very young Alazarin girl by the name of Angharad Seren.

Angharad was there when the first one came from the sky, hurtling towards the village. Now she had heard of objects fitting this description before, but they only existed in the sparkling cities of Antares Beta and not in the simplistic Alazarin village. They were called "trashcans" as far as she could remember, but still something did not seem quite right. She never remembered being told that trashcans could fly, nor did she remember being told trashcans shouted the word "EXTERMINATE" at the top of their lungs. In fact as far as she knew, trashcans were not supposed to be able to talk at all.

Uneasy, she decided that telling Wren was definitely the best idea, and she ran in the direction of the leader's hut as fast as her little legs could carry her. The trashcan was still following, screaming in it's harsh and frightening voice. It wasn't long before she saw Elder Davon up ahead in his garden.

"Mr. Davon! I need to speak with Wren!"

"Why is that Angharad?" Davon said in his kindly voice. "She's not here right now, she's with an old friend."

"But Mr. Davon this is important! There's a scary trashcan following me!"

The small amount of Alazarin coloring Davon had drained from his face as he looked up and saw the strange thing approaching.

"Angharad, run! Go hide, now!"

Angharad listened, and quickly hid herself in some bushes where she watched on in terror. Davon stood his ground as the trashcan approached him, and slowed to a stop. A strange stalk atop the thing made a whirring noise as it extended, almost seeming to examine Davon.

"Who are you?" Davon demanded angrily, in a voice Angharad had not thought him capable of making.

"We are the Daleks" the thing replied. The voice was harsh and frightening, with not a hint of any sort of organic quality to it, not the remotest scrap of warmth.

"We?" Davon questioned, starting to circle the thing. The stalk followed. "I only see one of you. There is no we."

"Incorrect. We are many. You are few. Daleks are supreme!"

"Not if my wife has anything to say about it," Davon said with a hint of amusement about his voice. "I've heard about you Daleks before, my wife knows someone who has faced you many times. The Doctor? Hmmm? Maybe you've heard of him?"

The Dalek seemed to start at the mention of the Doctor, and it looked around in a way that might have been perceived as nervously.

"The Doctor changes nothing! This planet will be exterminated! You will be exterminated! Exterminate! EXTERMINATE!"

Angharad squeezed her eyes shut as there was a loud explosion and did not dare to open them until the shouting subsided. And when she had, she immediately wished she hadn't. The hut was all but destroyed, Davon lay as if dead, pinned beneath the wreckage. Angharad wanted to run to him, but she was frozen to the spot. That's when she heard the pounding footsteps of two people running towards the debris. One she immediately recognized as Wren, but the other was a man she had never seen before. His skin was of similar color to Wren's, but his hair was strange, it was brown and stuck out in odd ways. His clothes were odd too, like nothing Angharad had ever seen. And he had no horns. None. Angharad was baffled. However her musing was interrupted by sounds of Wren's screams.

"No! Davon, please no."

Angharad watched as Wren leaned over her husband, sobbing, and she felt absolutely numb. She couldn't move, she couldn't make a sound. This couldn't be happening, it simply couldn't. The strange man seemed to be in a similar situation, because he just stood there staring sadly at the scene. Wren looked up at him, and her face was streaked with tears. It jolted Angharad with a sort of fear to see this woman, the leader of both her race and planet, so apparently weak and vulnerable.

"Stop!" she suddenly shrieked at the strange man, but from what Angharad could see the man had done nothing. "Look at you standing there. Go away! This is all your fault!"

The man said nothing, but Angharad felt a ripple of anger at him. He was obviously upsetting Wren, and that was enough for her. But immediately Angharad felt somewhat bad. The man looked so sad, and there was something about his eyes.

"Stop it! Get away from me!" Wren hollered at him.

"I can't do that," the man replied.

But that was when the trashcan- Dalek creature returned. Angharad almost screamed, but then thought better of it. Instead she sat, transfixed in horror.

"Run!" the man screamed, and Wren listened to him. Angharad knew it was her time to act. As her leader ran in the opposite direction, she jumped up, screaming. The man looked over to her shocked as he watched the Alazarin powers which she possessed explode from within her body. It hit the Dalek head on, and the thing merely ceased to exist, exploding with massive force.

The man looked over to the small girl, his eyes wide.

"Thanks," he managed to get out, and Angharad nodded vigorously, breathing heavily. The man leaned down in order to be on her height level. "Listen, you need to get out of here as fast as you can. Take the whole village, as many people as you can and get off this planet. Bad things are about to happen here, and you need to survive."

Angharad nodded and then watched for a moment as the man ran after Wren as fast as he possibly could. She remained rooted to the spot for a few minutes, trying to regain the energy she had lost with the massive attack. As she stood there, she watched a spinning blue box fly out over the tops of the trees and into the distance, several of the Daleks following it. She took one more deep breath in and then took off back into the village, doing exactly as the man had told her.

Two thousand years into the future, the TARDIS stood absolutely still, parked in the spot where the planet Antares Beta had once been. The Doctor and Wren had drawn as many of the Daleks as far possible from the planet in an attempt to gain the people below more time, and then had launched the vessel forward in time in order to lose them. It had been a grueling bit of flying, and they had no way of knowing whether or not it had even worked. Wren backed away slowly from the controls until she hit a large pillar like structure which she slid down before curling into a ball and sobbing uncontrollably. There was an eerie sort of semi- silence, in which noiselessly the Doctor made his way over to his companion and sank down beside her, placing a hand on her back gently. Wren made an odd strangled noise and hit his arm away violently.

"Do not touch me Time Lord!" she hissed through barred teeth. "I will never forgive you for this!"

The Doctor merely gazed at her unfazed, his face a stony mask of solemnity.

"Wren, I've been there. What you're feeling? I've been through it all before. I know how awful this must be."

"No, you don't!" she cried angrily. The Doctor gave her a strange look.

"Think about what you just said for a moment," he said almost in disbelief. "Think about who you're talking to! I'm not called the Last of Time Lords because I'm the sole surviving member of some rock band, my planet is dead Wren. Obliterated. Erased from Time itself. I know what it's like to watch the ones you love being ripped away from you, not being able to do anything about it. It's the curse we have to live with Wren... we always outlive those we care for. I knew this day was going to come ever since the moment I became involved with you. I knew you were going to have to leave them all behind on this day."

"Why didn't you say something then?" Wren asked in a considerably less angered tone. To be honest in her raw hurt she had forgotten completely how much the Doctor had lost as well, and now she felt somewhat bad for yelling at him.

"What was I supposed to say?" the Doctor asked. "'Great to meet you Wren, I'll be back 400 years later when the Daleks destroy everything you've ever known!' I couldn't do that to someone so young."

"Please... I just want to be left alone."

"No you don't," the Doctor said very plainly. Wren bit her lip and looked up at the Time Lord with her sparkling lavender eyes, still brimming with tears. The moment her eyes met with his, she knew he was absolutely right. She fell into him crying and he did his best to comfort her, breathing a sigh of relief that at least she was no longer angry. The one thing he did realize Wren had picked up when she absorbed his mind was a definite hot temper.

"I'm sorry," Wren said after a long silence. "I've been so awful to you ever since you came back for me. I missed you, you know. So much it hurt at times. I guess I have a funny way of showing it."

"It's okay," the Doctor assured her, but she continued.

"You were saving my life and I was just concerned about my wounded pride. I can sense all your feelings and I just chose to ignore them. You knew I needed to get off that planet. I should have known, all you memories in my skull. I never though once to see what you knew about my own planet. I could have saved them... I could have saved Davon."

The Doctor looked at her ruefully.

"Sometimes no matter how much you know, you can't save anyone." The way in which he said it, Wren knew it came from painful personal experience. She swallowed, but said nothing for a time. The Doctor sat there beside her, still and silent as the space surrounding them. Wren didn't mind so much however, because even to just feel his presence there was comforting in its own way.

"What became of them?" Wren asked eventually. "My people?"

"They scattered. Eventually a new planet was discovered, Antares Theta. Most of them live there now... you know all this though."

Wren nodded. She did, because the Doctor did, but to be honest even after nearly 400 years she had not yet examined every fact the Doctor had stored away, merely because the sheer volume of his knowledge made that impossible.

Suddenly the Doctor stood, wiping the dirt from the all the excitement in the forest off his suit jacket. He turned to Wren and extended a hand, smiling.

"Come on, I'll take you somewhere. Take your mind off things a bit."

He continued to smile at her, but she just gave him a melancholy look. The Doctor frowned, and Wren could tell that he was worried about her. She bit her lip and then said the thing that had been at the back of her mind ever since he had done it.

"You kissed me," she said. The Doctor's ears went slightly pink and he swallowed, despite the fact that his throat had just gone completely dry. There was a long, awkward silence and eventually the Doctor licked his lips and spoke.

"The 15th broken moon of the Medusa Cascade maybe?" he said in a small voice, completely avoiding the subject.

Wren looked down, kneading her forehead briefly with her thumb and index finger. She sighed, but then immediately felt that all she could really do was laugh at his response

"Sure," she said, grinning. "Sounds great."

The Doctor beamed, and Wren felt him rejoice.

"Glad to have you back Miss Lucinda Wrencia Cordova."


	4. Chapter 3

Lucinda Wrencia Cordova III was the official title of Talaith Seren, queen of Antares Theta, but mostly she went by Tal. Like her father, his father and his mother (the famed Lucinda Wrencia Cordova II, Angharad Seren) she was an Alazarin. To have so many in a family like that was unheard of, even when both parents were of the mind reading race. Tal was young too, at least by Alazarin standards, being only 30 years old when she inherited the crown, following her father's murder.

The first years of her rule did not go peacefully either. A civil war had erupted over outrage over her father's murder, and her subsequent inheritance of the throne. Tal struggled to keep her planet from tearing itself apart, as the Acamarin were a naturally violent people and there were many who felt that going back to the old way of things would be much preferable. The rebels fought bitterly to the very last, until they were finally eliminated. During that period Tal didn't sleep well for months.

Often time Tal found the mere overwhelming stress of ruling a planet was enough to drive her to the brink of insanity, and it was at these times she felt the only thing she could do to free her mind was play some sort of board game with Kerrick, the only male she found she could stand for more than five minutes. However on this day, as they played the Earth game chess, Tal found Kerrick's discourse to be tiresome.

"Why do _you_ think the Daleks targeted Antares Beta?" he asked her, in what might have been a casual way if it hadn't been Kerrick asking. There was no such thing as a casual question with Kerrick, everything had some sort of hidden motive.

"I don't know," Tal replied, trying to keep her focus on the game. "Might it have had something to do with our relative vicinity to their former home planet, the fact that our race posed a threat due to the fact that we were finally expanding into the universe and that the Acamarin's purple skin and horns were incredible un-Dalek like? Check, by the way."

"Ha, that's what you're told," Kerrick said, deftly moving his king to avoid the threat, without so much as even looking. "But they were definitely after something. That blue box your great- grandmother saw? I think I know what it really was."

"Oh yeah, really?" Tal said, making her move. She doubted it, because Acamar researchers, scientists and historians alike had all been trying to figure this out for two thousand years and come no nearer to an answer. But then again, Kerrick had also visited Earth several times, more than anyone one else from Antares Theta, and he knew things others didn't. Kerrick leaned back from the chessboard, a smug sort of grin on his face.

"Have you ever heard of the Doctor?" he asked her, an air of intrigue about his voice. "Oh and... checkmate."

The 15th broken moon of the Medusa Cascade could very easily be described as one of the Seven Wonders of the Universe. The Medusa Cascade itself was beautiful enough, the space-time rift being splashed with brilliant oranges, pinks, and blues. The broken moon was named so for the fact that it was hit at sometime or another by something large (presumably one of the other 14 moons, which were suspiciously missing), and there was large piece of its surface trapped in its own orbit. The moon itself was not a barren, rocky satellite, as moons often are, but lush and beautiful, covered in jungles and sparkling water which flowed into the large gorge the missing chunk had created. And the sky, lit up by the Cascade above, made the tumbling waters appear to be multicolored.

The Doctor had long been wanting to bring one of his companions to this place, it was marvelous as far as he was concerned. He was thrilled to see from the look of pure rapture on her face as they left the TARDIS, Wren thought so as well.

"Do you like it?" the Doctor asked her eagerly.

"It's brilliant! Do you visit places like this all the time? This is amazing!"

The Doctor grinned at her and took her hand.

"Come on, let's have a look around then," he said leading her off into the trees. Wren walked along side him eagerly, trying her best to take in everything around her. Wren had always had a fondness for forests, ever since she was a child, but this one was far more spectacular than any she had ever been to before. There were gargantuan plants like nothing she had ever seen before, the colors and the smells were wondrous. She could hear the calls of strange creatures she had never seen before, and every once in a while she would catch glimpses of them out of the corner of her eye. And the trees seemed to extend into the sky for miles.

Eventually they made it to the gorge, and Wren couldn't help but gasp. The pounding water drowned out almost every sound around them, cascading in from all sides into the gorge so deep you couldn't even see the bottom. The rainbow waters misted up, showering both the Doctor and Wren and soaking their clothing through. The Doctor turned to Wren, his hair plastered to his forehead and dripping down on to his equally soaked face. He said something, but Wren couldn't hear.

"What?" she shouted.

"I said!" he repeated, much louder. "I'm glad you're the one I got to see this with!"

"You mean you've never been here before?" she shouted back.

"No!" he replied. "You knew that, come on!"

"Well excuse me mister, I've had better things to do over three hundred and ninety seven years than examine every single memory you've ever had!"

"Aw, excuses Wren!" the Doctor teased, laughing. "You've just been slacking, that's all!"

Wren laughed a bit, but she felt a ripple of affection radiate from the Doctor and she looked up, shocked. Their eyes met, and for one very long and awkward moment nothing happened. There was no sound except for the deafening rushing of the water. The Doctor slowly raised one hand to the side of his companion's face, and Wren felt nervousness flood him. The Time Lord kissed her, unsure at first, then suddenly with more conviction. Wren felt herself gripped with a sudden panic, and she pulled away. She stared at him in shock for a moment before taking off towards the TARDIS.

"Wren! Wren, wait!" he called, taking off after her. He finally caught up with her when she had reached the vessel and caught her wrist before she entered it. "What is it, what's wrong?"

"That was beyond weird," she said in a panicked voice. "My husband just died less than an hour ago and I'm here snogging you in front of the most beautiful sight I've ever seen in my life. You've only known me for a week, I was 13 years old for most of that time and I know two words I could say that would make you doubt every feeling you've ever felt for me: Rose Tyler."

Pain wrenched the Doctor at the mention of Rose's name, and he looked at Wren sadly.

"This is weird, this is beyond weird," she repeated, opening the TARDIS doors and pulling loose of the Doctor.

"Wren!" the Doctor called in an exasperated tone, going in after her.

When the Doctor had closed the door, he saw Wren going down the stairs from the control platform and down the hall. He sighed, slightly irritated (at himself more than anyone), and then went to follow her. He finally caught up with her in a large room at the end of the hall where she halted.

"I'm being rude again, aren't I?" she said without turning around.

"Yeah," the Doctor said hurriedly. "Yeah, a little bit. You'll have picked that up from me I'm afraid, I'm terribly bad about it, but that's not the point. I'm sorry, that's the point. I didn't mean to upset you."

Wren turned to face the Doctor, her eyes frowning and her mouth giving a sad sort of half smile.

"It's just too fast," she said. "All of this... it's far to fast. I feel like I can't even breath."

The Doctor gave her a small smile.

"You," he said. "Look like you need a good, long rest. Come on, we'll find you somewhere to lay down."

Tal could hardly believe what Kerrick had told her. The man, the one her great grandmother had seen with the funny hair and no horns, he was a Time Lord, and not just any, the one known as the Doctor. Tal had heard stories about Time Lords before, but she though they were just that, stories. Beings with that much power couldn't possibly exist, the very balance of the Universe would have to be tilted. Plus, she had never heard of anyone actually ever meeting one, and all attempts to locate their planet had proved fruitless. One explorer had mentioned that he found the place where it should have been, but it simply was not there, as if it had been "plucked out of the stars."

But the Doctor, his existence was undeniable. He seemed to have adopted the humans as his second race, spending most of his time either on Earth or with Earthlings. And there were records of him throughout the history of the planet, even "websites" (Tal had a difficult time understanding what these were) devoted entirely to him. But what really got her was the description of his vessel, the spinning blue box that could appear and disappear at will. Angharad Seren, before her death, had imparted her memory of the box to her son, and he in turn had passed it to Tal's father, and her father had given it to her. Tal knew what this vessel looked like... and it was exactly as Kerrick had described the Doctor's to be.

"He's the only one the Daleks ever feared," Kerrick had said. "Of course, they would never admit it, being Daleks, but it's true. They called him 'the Destroyer of Worlds.'"

"Funny, and we call the Daleks the 'Great Destroyers.'" Tal said, but Kerrick ignored her as he continued on.

"They wanted to annihilate him, no matter the cost. The Doctor being here the day they came to destroy us? I don't think it was just pure coincidence."

"Why didn't he just stop them?" Tal asked. "If they feared him so much?"

"Simple," Kerrick said, still with the same smile. "He was running away."

Somehow Tal had trouble believing that last part. She had gone through her great grandmother's memory at least a thousand times. The man Angharad Seren had met was kind, he had warned them all to escape. And the blue box seemed to be trying to lead the Daleks away if anything. There were just too many of them though.

The other part however, that was troubling. Had the Daleks really only come searching for the Doctor, and had the destruction of their planet and all they had ever know merely been collateral damage? And of course there was the still the burning question: what had happened to Wren?

Tal attempted to knead the massive headache that was forming out from behind her eyes. This was too much to take in.

Wren opened her eyes to the sound of the TARDIS taking off. She looked around, almost as if she were making sure she was still on board and the Doctor wasn't leaving her behind. And as improbable as it was that he would ever do something like that, you could never really be quite sure. She rose from the bed in the room the Doctor had provider her and found a change of clothes he had set out for her. She smiled when she noticed the ensemble included a sky blue pair of high top trainers. The Doctor certainly had an odd liking for these shoes.

Fully dressed, Wren made her way to the control room, where she was greeted with the comical sight of the Doctor attempting to hold down three buttons and a switch all at the same time, and keep an eye on the monitor.

"Oh no. No, no, no, no, don't do that!" he pleaded of the ship, now attempting to used his foot as and extra button holder. Wren couldn't help but laugh, and hearing her the Doctor looked up.

"Oh Wren! You're awake! Here, would you mind lending a hand? It's the TARDIS, old girl is being incredibly temperamental today." The vessel shook. "Well it's no use denying it, you are!" the Time Lord shouted at his ship. Wren chuckled.

"Should I get the mallet?" she inquired jestingly, and the TARDIS shook once again.

"Uh yeah... no. Best not mention it again either, I don't think she liked that."

Wren laughed again and dove in, helping the Doctor control the vessel.

"So where are we going Doctor?" she asked. "What kind of whirlwind adventure do you have up your sleeve today?"

"I don't know about that," the Doctor said, his voice filled with amusement. He flipped a new switch and then looked over to the monitor briefly before turning what looked suspiciously like a faucet fixture. "I figured I might take you to Antares Theta, so you could see how your people are doing now a days."

Wren stepped away from the TARDIS controls, a blank and somewhat shocked look on her face. The Doctor looked up at her.

"Wren?" he asked, his face written with concern. After a second she broke into a smile.

"I can't even begin to tell you how grateful I am you're doing this for me."

The Doctor grinned, but just then is when the TARDIS made its landing, and a very rough one at that. The were jolted violent, toppling to the floor. Wren came down on top of the Doctor, and when they had both regained their composure they just stared at each other wide eyed and awkwardly. The Doctor inhaled loudly through his nose, chewing his bottom lip a bit.

"Well," he said in a strained and slightly nervous voice. "Isn't this just delightfully awkward. Like a badly written romantic comedy."

Wren stared at him for a moment longer, blinked a few times and finally cracked up, laughing hysterically at the whole situation.

"Alright," she said. "Shall we be going then?"

"Yeah, I'll need you to get off me first," said the Doctor in the same strained voice. "Not meaning to be rude, but you're crushing me."

"Right," Wren said quickly, getting up immediately. The Doctor sat up and dusted himself off a bit before looking over to Wren and catching her eye. The Doctor sniggered and within second they had both burst into uncontrollable fits of laughter. After quite some time the Doctor jumped up.

"Right, come on then, allons-y!" he said excitedly. "We have a planet to see!"

He extended a hand to her, helping her up, and the two went to leave the TARDIS arm in arm. Yet, once they stepped outside, they knew something was wrong. At least, that's what all the guns being pointed in their direction were telling them.

"You will not move. We know who you are Doctor," one of the gun wielding men said. Wren could see and feel the Doctor become angry, she'd witnessed it more than once to date. She'd even been on the receiving end of the infuriated wide eyed look he was now giving, and it was an experience she never wanted to repeat.

"Put the guns down," he very nearly growled. Wren was reminded suddenly of how much he hated the things.

"You are being taken before Her Supreme Highness Lucinda Wrencia Cordova III on suspicion of your involvement with the destruction of our former planet."

That shocked Wren. It wasn't only hearing her name, but the fact that her people could even suspect for a second that the Doctor had anything to do with the awful fate that had befallen her planet, why it was preposterous. This was the Doctor! However, Wren didn't have much time to think about it as they were both being marched away. The Doctor laughed bitterly.

"Oh if you only knew who you were threatening here," he said. "Wouldn't you be stunned."

It took Wren a second to realize he was referring to her.

* * *

_*whirls in wearing a Hawaiian lei and cowboy hat*_

_Hello, hello again!_

_I would like to take this time to say I love Wales, merely because Welsh names are awesome for anything Sci Fi or Fantasy. I mean seriously, Angharad? That almost sounds Elvish!_

_Hope you enjoying my story, and if you are please review it. In fact, even if you aren't, please review it. Heck, even if you don't know the difference between my story and a banana muffin, please review it! This no feedback thing is getting sort of irksome. :/_

_Love you all!_

_*scampers off*_


	5. Chapter 4

Wren tried her best to look back at the Doctor behind her, but their captors were certainly making that difficult. Wren's hands were bound, and she could only assume the Doctor's were likewise, and she had two guards on either side of her each still holding a very large gun. They had been led to a large castle of sorts, and then to a spectacular throne room, where seated at the head of the room in a magnificent ornate floating throne was the Queen of Antares Theta. Seeing the small girl, Wren was reminded of herself somewhat, having so much power at such a young age. She could tell from the girl's sparkling lavender eyes and white hair she was an Alazarin, but there was something else familiar about her Wren was having a hard time placing in the order of her large mind. She felt the Doctor lean in behind her in order to speak into her ear.

"That's the Girl Queen of Antares Theta, Talaith Seren," the Doctor said to Wren in undertone. His breath on her neck made her shiver.

"I know that," Wren hissed back, trying to cover up that she had done so.

"Oh, been taking the time to sort through some of my useless memories, have we?" the Doctor jested. Wren smiled. She found his ability to be so light heated comforting. Their escorts however, did not, and one struck the Doctor in the back with the butt of his weapon. Wren cringed as she felt the pain rebound into her as well.

"You will show respect to our Queen."

Hearing this, the Queen looked up and almost immediately her eyes met with Wren's. Wren felt chills as she realized who was this girl reminded her of. Talaith Seren's resemblance to little Angharad was uncanny. The Queen seemed to notice something equally startling about Wren as well, because her eyes widened and she stood.

"Stop!" she commanded her guards. They looked up at her, puzzled, and the small queen stormed towards them. "Stop, for Alasheru's sake! Are your minds made of fluff? Can't you see who this is? Look at her hair! This is Lucinda Wrencia Cordova I!"

There was general shock and pandemonium at this statement, and the guards immediately went to remove Wren's shackles.

"His too!" Talaith Seren commanded, and it was made so. The Doctor flexed his hands a bit, as if making sure they were in working order. "Now leave us!"

The guards hesitated, but obeyed. The two Time Lords were left with the little Alazarin queen, who had begun to rub at her forehead furiously.

"You look exactly like your Great Grandmother, Talaith," Wren said kindly, and the girl looked up.

"Please, call me Tal," she said, now sounding more like the girl she was than the ruler of a planet. Tal went over to her throne and fell into it in an exhausted manner, her eyes closed. "That is the last time I ever take any advice from Kerrick. I should have known, everything makes sense now. I'm sorry to both of you, especially you Doctor. You're not hurt, are you?"

"No, not that I can tell," the Doctor groaned, rubbing his back.

"Tal," Wren said, coming closer to her. "Your guards mentioned something about the Doctor being suspected of having something to do with Antares Beta being destroyed. You know that isn't even remotely true, right?"

Tal looked up at Wren, her hand balanced on her forehead, and pierced her with a look that Wren knew meant she was reading her thoughts.

_My, what strong feelings you have for him,_ she could hear Tal's voice sound within her head. _If Kerrick felt even half as strongly about me..._

Wren then heard the small queen sigh, and with her real voice she spoke.

"Doctor, we think the Daleks might have come because they knew you were on Antares Beta."

"You're wrong," the Doctor said bluntly. "The Daleks came because they're Daleks, and they feel nothing except for hate and the desire to destroy. I arrived after them, and for one purpose only, and that was to make sure Wren survived."

"Then why didn't you stop them?" Tal asked, and Wren could tell it truly upset her, though she couldn't imagine why. Tal was far too young to have been even a thought in anyone's head when the Daleks had arrived.

"I couldn't," the Doctor said sadly.

"Why?" Tal asked, as Wren knew she would.

"Tal, there are some things that need to happen," she tried to explain. "And unfortunately, the destruction of Antares Beta was one of these things. No one could do anything about it."

The way Tal looked at her, Wren could tell she didn't understand.

Just then the doors to the throne room opened, and another Alazarin walked in, a boy this time. He was older than Tal, and Wren could only assume this must be Kerrick. The look on Kerrick's face was hard to read, the smile he wore for some reason did not seem like a happy one. He went straight over to Tal and spoke directly to her.

"Is this him?" he asked. "The Doctor?"

"Yes, and Wren!" Tal said.

"Wren?"

"_The_ Wren!"

Kerrick looked over at them both, his smile now even wider.

"That's amazing," he said. "No wonder we couldn't find her, she was in the TARDIS!"

"How do you know about the TARDIS?" the Doctor asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I've been wanted to make your acquaintance for a very long time Doctor," Kerrick said in a slightly ominous tone. "A very long time."

Not very long after that is when they were escorted to their respective rooms, waiting for dinner. Tal had said that in order to make up for the misunderstanding regarding their capture she would allow them to stay as long as they wanted at the castle, and that they would dine with her as her special guests. As a result, Wren now found herself in a room grander than any other she had ever set foot in, looking out the window at the sky. She marveled at the fact that the sky was so different her, that the stars were in such different locations, and yet she could point to any one of them as still know its name.

"Funny how beautiful they are no matter how you look at them," she heard the Doctor say from behind her. She turned to see him standing in the doorway, hands in his pockets, smiling. "The stars I mean... not the... er... curtains or anything, although those are nice enough too. Blimey, it's dark in here!" The Doctor reached into his pocket for his Sonic Screwdriver, and a few moments later the lights came on.

"Truth be told I have no idea where they've stuffed the light switches here," the Doctor confessed with a grin.

"Bah, light switches. Who needs them" Wren said, echoing something the Doctor had said to her once a very long time ago. The Doctor laughed and then came to sit by her on the bed, watching the stars for a time before Wren eventually said something. "Why are you here, Doctor?" she asked.

"Well, I was sitting there all alone in that room of mine, and I must confess it was pretty dreary in there. Plus, it really was a bit creepy there, all alone in my room, and to tell you the truth... I really just wanted to talk to you."

Wren felt her hearts beat a bit faster as she sensed the same affection from before coming from the Doctor as earlier. The way he was looking at her was unlike any way he'd looked at her before, and it almost made Wren feel a little uneasy.

"Really, she said somewhat nervously. "Is that all?"

"Oh yes, that's definitely it," the Doctor replied, still gazing at her intently.

"Then... uh, what do you think of that Kerrick kid?" she asked.

"Well there's certainly something up with him, he's unnatural without a doubt." As he said this, the Doctor brought the back of his hand down the pale skin of Wren's face. As he allowed his hand to fall, Wren caught it, squeezing it. This shocked the Doctor somewhat, and the look in his eyes intensified, like they were filled with fire. Wren couldn't stand it any longer; she kissed him the way she had been waiting to for nearly 400 years, passionately and for a very, very long time. The Doctor's eyes closed. He brought his hands to her face gently, and just as they were falling back onto the bed the door opened.

Tal stood there very awkwardly for a moment as both Time Lords merely stared at her. Just as began to blush furiously and turn away, the Doctor stood and pushed past her brusquely, heading back to his own room.

"I'm sorry," she very nearly squeaked. Wren looked closer at the girl and tell she was very nearly in tears, and suddenly she was flooded with sympathy for the little queen.

"No, it's quite all right. Come in Tal, have a seat."

Tal did so, not quite looking Wren in the eyes.

"Is he mad at me?" she asked in a somewhat frightened voice.

"Who him?" said Wren, jerking her head in the direction the Doctor had gone. She laughed. "No, he's embarrassed... and a little bit disappointed too. Imagine that... an embarrassed Time Lord. Remember that, you might not see it again. Actually, come to think of it, you probably will. With the Doctor at least, he embarrasses himself quite often, not exactly to that degree, but he's always apologizing for something or other... it's not quite normal though. Then again, the Doctor is far... far, far from normal."

Tal giggled a bit, and Wren gave her a funny sort of smile.

"What?" she asked, laughing.

"You sound like him. The Doctor. You talk in the same way."

"How would you know that?" Wren asked, and Tal laughed again.

"You're not the only one whose mind I read, the Doctor was just a bit more conversational," she said laughing.

"Oh no," Wren said. "What did he say?"

"He told me that if I tried to absorb his mind he might be forced to do something drastic, because you tried something similar once and he never wants to repeat the experience."

Wren smiled.

"Not tried," she clarified. "Succeeded."

Tal's eyes grew suddenly very wide.

"The mind of a Time Lord?" she said incredulously. "No, that's impossible. You would die! Your mind would... I dunno, explode or something."

"Oh, I definitely wouldn't recommend it, but it can be done," Wren said, leaning back a bit. "If he's close enough to me I feel everything he feels, even his pain. He can't hide anything from me. I know all his dearest secrets, things I wish I didn't. I only did it because I was very, very desperate."

"Why?" Tal asked.

Wren gave the girl a sad smile.

"I can show you if you don't mind," she said, raising her palm to the girl's forehead.

About half an hour later, Tal now knew everything that had transpired between Wren and the Doctor at the Academy, and what had happened when he came back. She seemed to be thinking very hard, and eventually she looked up at Wren with very serious look.

"Wren, please. I want you to take over being the Queen from me. I can't do it, it's too much." Wren looked at the girl, too shocked to speak, and so Tal continued. "I want to be normal. I want Kerrick to be normal too. He's been acting so weird lately, ever since he returned from Earth that last time. He never leaves his lab, he's obsessed with something and he won't tell me what. And I just want to be with him. I want to marry him."

"Aren't you a little young to be thinking about that?" Wren asked, still just floored.

"I'm 75, I'm not as young as I look!" Tal replied. "Please Wren, this job is too much for just an Alazarin mind. I can't possibly keep this planet in balance... It needs a mind like yours. A Time Lord mind."

Wren just shook her head.

"No, Tal," she said. "No, I can't do that. I can't do that to him."

As the girl left, disappointed, Wren felt a wave of relief wash over from the room next door that made everything worth it. She flopped back onto the bed and closed her eyes, realizing suddenly how hungry she truly was. She then thought to herself that dinner truly couldn't come soon enough.

* * *

_And we have one story alert subscriber (HIIII!)! Still no reviews, but hey... _

_I must admit this story is taking a complete turn from where I originally thought it was going in the first chapter. And I am totally all right with that. I guess this is what I get for never writing out my outlines, and just storing them in my head._


	6. Chapter 5

Wren had feared that after what had transpired between them that dinner with the Doctor might be an awkward and painful experience, but it was quite the opposite. The Time Lord was too lively and enthusiastic about every aspect of the meal to even think about being awkward, partaking in the meal set before them with incredible vigor. He was the only one talking, but this didn't seem to bother the Doctor too much, as he was most likely used to it. At the head of the table, Tal couldn't help but laughing and had almost choked on her food more than once. Even Wren herself, seated directly across from him, certainly found it hard to keep her composure.

"You know what Wren, I had never thought I would love your people's food so much, but I have to give it to them, this is truly fantastic. And I've eaten a lot of food... a lot of bad food as well, come to think of it. Did you know that the Magnosentinels of Regulus 4 once tried to serve me mummified insect larvae with mushrooms growing out of them? It was dreadful, had to try one to be polite of course. And you don't even want to know what the Tritovore eat."

"What?" Tal asked eagerly. As the Doctor opened his mouth to answer and Wren cringed, hoping he wouldn't, Kerrick preempted him.

"You truly have seen the universe in it's entirety," Kerrick said to the Doctor admiringly.

"Not the entirety of it, no," the Doctor replied. "That'd be impossible, even for someone with a life as long as mine. And once you've seen the whole thing, what's left to do besides give up and stop? Nothing. You're done."

Kerrick's strange smile grew wider.

"Doctor, there's something I've very much been wanting to show you," he said, standing. "If you don't mind and you're finished with you're meal, I could do so right now. Wren could come as well, of course."

"Can I see?" Tal asked eagerly, and the look he gave her almost made Wren want to stand up and slap him.

"I guess so," he said eventually, not caring to hide the disdain in his voice. Tal was crestfallen.

"On second thought, the Prime Minister needed me for something," she half mumbled, before leaving very quickly. Wren watched her leave, and she was filled with a rush of sympathy for the girl. She couldn't imagine what she was going through, watching her friend change so much before her very eyes. If Davon had ever done something like that... she stopped and tried very desperately to push the thought from her mind. She couldn't think about Davon yet, it was still far too painful.

The Doctor gave Kerrick a strange look and then went to follow him. Feeling somewhat uneasy, Wren in turn followed the Doctor, and Kerrick led them out of the dining hall. Turning and seeing his companion behind him, the Doctor slowed his pace so that he was walking alongside her.

"Definitely unnatural," he said to her in undertone. Wren frowned.

"Yeah, I'll say," she replied, her eyes locked on the back of the Alazarin's head.

Kerrick ended up leading them to an underground laboratory of sorts, filled with all kinds of delightful gadgets and machines the boy had collected over the years. Wren found she recognize many of them as things the Doctor had encountered before, and even if she didn't she found she could _see _the way in which they worked, and easily too.

The object which Kerrick seemed so fascinated with however was an archway, ornately decorated with strange pictures. Wren found it somewhat unsettling for some reason. They seemed to depict the story of a King who was betrayed by one of his advisors, and then had his revenge from the grave as his loyal subjects extracted the advisor's soul and then threw his body into a forge. The Doctor's eyebrows both shot up as he saw the thing, and immediately he donned a pair of thick rimmed rectangular framed glasses and began to examine the archway from all angles, running his hands over various parts of it.

"I found it on Earth," Kerrick began to explain. "But it's not from there originally. "There's no way, humans won't ever become _this_ advanced. I found it in pieces originally, and I've been working on restoring it. I must admit, I haven't made very much headway. So, can you guess what it is?"

The Doctor was far to absorbed in his examination to respond, so Kerrick turned to Wren instead.

"Erm.." Wren said, searing for the words as the Alazarin looked at her expectantly. "It's some sort of temporal tunnel excavation... thingy."

"Yes," Kerrick said. "A gateway into another dimension."

"A gateway into the past," the Doctor corrected, looking up.

"You know where it leads?" Kerrick said, astounded.

"No," the Doctor admitted. "I have absolutely no idea. It could lead anywhere, as long as it's in the past. You see, that's how this arc works, one way ticket to something that's already happened. It was used for banishing traitors by its designers. Pop them far into the past and you'll never have to deal with them again, simple as that!"

"You can tell all this by just looking at it?" Kerrick asked in awe. The Doctor smiled.

"Not remotely, but I'm generally very good at guessing."

Kerrick grinned, but the look in his eyes still made Wren feel slightly nervous.

"Thank you both," he said in an almost sycophantic voice. "I'm glad you were able to see this."

The Doctor nodded and took Wren's hand. He jerked her arm and began to walk away briskly, and Wren was all too eager to follow, glad to be getting away.

"Aren't you going to do something about that?" Wren asked in a low voice once they were far enough away not to be overheard. "If he gets that thing working, the results could be catastrophic. We have no idea where it leads.

"It'll be okay," the Doctor assured her. "The technology is far above his head. The kid is smart, but not that smart. The Alazarin won't discover time travel for another thousand years at least."

"It's not time travel, he'd be punching a hole in the universe!" Wren exclaimed. The Doctor gave her a sympathetic look and placed a hand on her shoulder. Wren continued. "I don't like what he's doing. You heard Tal, he's the one who told her to capture you in the first place. He wants you for something, and he used Tal to get to you. You saw the way he treats her! And she loves him."

"I know," the Doctor said sadly. "I did see that, it's awful. But there's nothing we can do, it's not our place."

The Doctor opened the door before him and Wren froze realizing that it was the door to his room. She hesitated, debating whether or not it was wise considering what had almost happened before. However, the Doctor didn't seem to be feeling anything outside the realm of what he usually did and when he entered the room he seemed to be fully expecting Wren to follow. She swallowed nervously and decided for better or worse to enter the room.

The Doctor closed the door behind them gently and then went to clear something he'd been working on off a small desk. Wren used this as an opportunity to look around, and she noticed that his room was different than hers in many ways. Everything about it was dingier, the lights seemed to be dimmer, the decorations were in a darker color palette and oddly enough there wasn't a single window in sight.

"Blimey, you're right," she said, half laughing to herself. "This room is positively gloomy."

The Doctor looked up at her and smiled. He went over to her, and Wren felt her hearts beginning to race.

"Yeah it is, isn't it," he said. "But I must say, you brighten the place up considerably."

With that they kissed again, this time sure there was nothing to stop them. They were wrong however, because no sooner had Wren begun to loosen the Doctor's tie than a ear piercing scream seemed to ring throughout the whole grand building. And it sounded exactly like Tal. They both looked up shocked and within seconds they took off in the direction it had come from. They were slowed up however, as a wide eyed Acamarin man stopped them.

"Who are you?" the man demanded. "What did you do?" The Doctor gave him a wild look. There wasn't time for this.

"I'm the Doctor, this is Wren. Listen, you have to let us through, your queen is in danger!" The man did not respond, his eyes merely drew a path directly from Wren's mussed up ginger hair to the Doctor's crooked and half undone tie.

"What have you-"

"Never mind that! Are you completely thick? Your queen could be dying for all we know, didn't you hear that?"

The man seemed to puff up.

"Excuse me Sir, I am the _Prime_ Minister of Antares Theta, I am far from thick!"

"Well I'm Lucinda Wrencia Cordova I, now MOVE!" Wren bellowed pushing past the man. She ran full speed towards the basement they had just come from, the Doctor pounding behind her. Something awful had happened she just knew it. It made her sick as the possibilities swirled through her Time Lord mind, countless possible futures, none of them anything good. Wren burst into the room and was horrified to see that somehow the arc had been switched on, and seemed to exploding with some sort of shining purple energy. Tal was cowering in the corner. Without thinking, Wren ran to the girl.

"I'm sorry!" Tal called out. "I didn't mean to! I thought I heard a noise, so I came down here to see if Kerrick was okay, but he wasn't here. All I wanted to do was look at it, I didn't mean to turn it on!"

"It doesn't matter, you have to get out of here!" Wren cried. There wasn't time however, the arc seemed to be shaking violently, and then the energy it was generating suddenly exploded outward. The only thing Wren could think to do was shield Tal's body with her own, and as the explosion hit her full force she shrieked in pain.

"No!" the Doctor shouted, but it was too late. The damage had been done. All he could do is watch in horror as Wren crumpled. However, with its final outburst, the arc seemed to be done for the time being and it sat there silent as the grave. The Doctor ran to his fallen companion, rolling her off of Tal and taking her into his arms.

"Oh no, don't you do this to me, don't you dare!" he said almost angrily, his eyes filling suddenly with tears. "I am not having this happen to me again!"

Wren's eyes fluttered open and the Doctor breathed a sigh of relief, but almost immediately she cried out in pain, writhing violently.

Tal watched wide eyed, too scared to even move. She looked to the Doctor, whose face had drained of all color now and whose hands had begun to shake, and she felt even worse. They both jumped when a intercom of some sort suddenly crackled to life and a sickeningly familiar voice came over it.

"Well isn't that unfortunate. There always has to be some sort of sacrifice, I guess." It was Kerrick's voice, but there was something odd about it, as if it wasn't him using it.

"Kerrick!" the Doctor roared at the air. "Where are you?"

"Kerrick?" the voice asked. "Is that his name then? I suppose it could be worse. Oh well. After all, he is a rather useful shell."

"What do you mean, what have you done?" There was silence. "Answer me!" the Doctor demanded. Tal flinched at his shouting, his wrath was truly terrifying.

"Oh my... how demanding. How... presumptuous. You much be a Time Lord, are you not?" This time it was the Doctor who did not reply, shaking now with rage as he breathed heavily through clenched teeth. "Yes, yes, the boy is telling me you are. The _Last_ of the Time Lords no less, oh my I must have been locked away for a long time. You see, I haven't had a body of my own for a very long time, I've been trapped withing that... archway I guess. I was sealed in there after betraying the King, I suppose his subjects didn't take too kindly to that. Millions of years I must have spent there, it's an existence hardly worth living. But then, this boy came along, Kerrick as you call him. I saw my opportunity and I seized it, and now I am amongst the living once again."

"The arc!" the Doctor shouted. "What are you doing with it, why is it important?"

"Why that? It's everything. It's not just a transport device, it's a weapon. The boy was getting along well enough by himself, but once I was able to help him, I was able to get it running at full capacity once again. That blast from before was a mere fraction of its power. And the best part? You can't do anything to stop it. I suggest getting far away Time Lord, saving yourself while you can. In few short hours this planet will not be anyplace you want to be."

There was a cruel laugh and the transmission seemed to die. The Doctor looked down at Wren, who was crying in pain, and his hearts were struck with fear. Wren reached up and grabbed hold of his suit jacket suddenly, clenching the crumpled fabric in her white knuckled fist.

"Doctor," she said in a pained voice, sweat beading on her forehead. "I can't hold it back any longer."

The Doctor looked into her eyes for a moment and saw something that let him know he needed to act quickly. He set Wren down and grabbed Tal suddenly.

"What's happening?" Tal managed to choke out through her frightened tears, but the Doctor just pulled her even farther away.

"Get back," he said. "Don't touch her!"

As he said this, the yellow shining light the Doctor had seen in Wren's eyes suddenly exploded from her every pore.


	7. Chapter 6

For those who have witnessed a Time Lord regeneration (and there are few outside the Time Lord race who have), you will no doubt know it is an extremely volatile process. Depending on how the Time Lord in question has "died" the process can range from fairly painless and with no overt complications to violent and downright dangerous. Wren's regeneration was definitely the latter, destroying many of the machines and gadgets that happened to be near her. She stood with her arms and legs outstretched as torrents of golden yellow bio-energy issued forth from all her exposed skin in an extremely explosive fashion. The Doctor's face was stony as he looked on. There was no telling what could happen, no telling if the Wren who came out of this regeneration would be the same Wren as she was before. No telling if she would even still be a she. Tal stood beside him quaking with fear, having no idea what was even going on.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity it was done. The Doctor remained frozen to the spot, hardly even sure he wanted to look. As she slowly lifted her head out of the shadows and turned to face them, the first thing the Doctor noticed was the familiar flash of ginger hair.

"What is it?" Wren asked. "Don't look at me like that! Is it bad, is it really bad? Oh no, I don't have two noses do I? No I don't, still only one. Why are you still giving me that look?"

"Wren," the Doctor said quietly. "You look beautiful."

It was true. Wren's previous incarnation had been pretty enough, but she had been stick skinny, covered in freckles and overall somewhat gawky and awkward looking. There was nothing awkward about this body. She was slender, but overly so, her skin was pale and flawless, and her hair was deeper in color, and more saturated. Her eyes still remained the same peculiar shade of sparkling lavender, but her horns seemed to have disappeared completely.

"Beautiful?" Wren said in disbelief. Even her voice was completely different. "Oh my, that'll take some getting used to. I guess that's good then, for your sake at least. Don't know how you'd manage if I were some ugly hag... if I _did_ have two noses, that's a frightening thought. Now, you wouldn't happen to have some peanut butter would you? I've never had it before, but I have a feeling I'll like it."

"Who are you?" Tal asked in a scared voice. She had been so quiet, the Doctor had almost forgotten she was there. "Where's Wren, what happened to her?"

" I am Wren!" Wren said exclaimed happily. Tal stared. "It's me, I've changed that's all! Like in the memory I showed you, remember?"

Tal still looked at her warily, her eyes filled with pure terror. The Doctor however approached her, his eyes filled with something completely different.

"Never do that again," he said simply.

"I'll try not to then," said Wren, grinning with her new teeth. The suddenly and seemingly without warning, her eyes rolled up into her head and she collapsed. The Doctor caught her in his arms, frowning. He lifted her up and began to walk quickly out of the lab, not once looking back at the archway or anything around it.

"Where are you going?" Tal asked, nearly desperately. "Don't leave, you can't leave."

"I need to get Wren to the TARDIS," the Doctor said, not looking at her.

"No, Doctor please. I can't do this alone!"

"Do you want her to die?" the Doctor said, raising his voice. "Time Lord regeneration is extremely tricky, without the energy from a TARDIS, things could horribly wrong. I am not going to lose her, I've lost too many of them!"

Tal didn't need to be able to feel the Doctor's emotions like Wren to know he was nearly at his breaking point, that feelings he normally kept tucked away deep down below his happy and enthusiastic exterior were coming to the surface. But Tal was at her breaking point too. She had just witnessed her own near death, discovered her best friend was being possessed by some sort of strange entity, watched as the Doctor snapped completely, cradling his writing and screaming companion in his arms, been hit with the knowledge that she and her whole planet were facing obliteration and watched a Time Lord regenerate their body.

"Doctor!" she screamed, finally losing. "We are all going to die if you don't help!"

"Not my problem," the Time Lord said coldly. He had reached the front door and shifted Wren into one arm so the he could open it.

"You make me sick," Tal said, her voice shaking with anger. "She would be disgusted with your if she saw you, look at yourself!"

"Don't tell me what she'd think, you have no idea!" the Doctor shouted at her, finally cracking. " I'm doing this for her!"

"She wouldn't want you to!" Tal shrieked, hot tears flowing down her face. The Doctor didn't even reply, he just turned and went to open the door. It was locked, so he went into his pocket searching for his screwdriver. "Please Doctor... please," Tal pleaded weakly. It seemed to have no effect.

The Doctor just stood there, but after a moment Tal noticed something must be wrong. The door wasn't open, he hadn't left, and he was being very unusually quiet.

"What is it, what's happened?" she asked frantically.

"Dead locked," he replied very weakly. Tal had no idea what that meant exactly, but obviously it wasn't good.

"Oh, did I say leave while you still can?" came the sound of Kerrick's voice once again. "I meant _i__f_ you can. I guess you're just out of luck then Time Lord."

The Doctor felt his hearts sink and the blood drain from his face. He gripped Wren tighter in his arms. This was not good.

Leaning back from the intercom he was broadcasting over from the castle's security center, Rhydian Maxwell laughed to himself. Watching the Time Lord's dismayed face on one of the many screens surrounding him, he felt deep satisfaction. Time Lords were so insufferable, always acting as if they were some much cleverer than everyone they encountered, being so proprietary with their time traveling secrets. To see him so lost was almost... thrilling.

Rhydian flexed is new fingers, still somewhat unsure of the usage of Kerrick's body. Still, the boy's body _was_ wondrous. He had not know beforehand that the child was a mind reader, and that despite his teenaged appearance he was apparently 90 years old. The body was coursing with energy and even without knowing its exact nature, Rhydian could tell it was going to be extremely useful. His only regret was that the boy never seemed to shut up.

_I still can't believe you got it working,_ he said. _That would have taken me years to do!_

"Yes, well it's easy when you're the one who designed the device in the first place," Rhydian said out loud, growing more exasperated by the second. Kerrick had been a more than willing host body, but because of this Rhydian was not able to control his mind the way he normally would to a host.

Rhydian Maxwell came from a race who relied on hosts to survive, the Svrouk- Vaën. They were functionally extinct, merely because the very nature of their species required the use on another's body, and there weren't too many who were keen on that. In fact, much like the Doctor, Rhydian was the last of his race in existence. However, the only reason for it was due to his peoples now failed attempt to destroy him.

_The Doctor knew how to fix it immediately, but I could tell he would never have told me,_ Kerrick continued. _Although_ _that _was_ the reason I lured him here in first place. Then, of course, you came along._

"Typical Time Lord," Rhydian muttered under his breath. Then he realized what Kerrick had said. "Wait, what did you call him?" he asked his host suddenly and harshly.

_The Doctor,_ Kerrick said, as if it should be common knowledge. Rhydian wheeled around and looked to the monitor. As he paused the playback and zoomed in on the Time Lord's face, a sinister smile came over his features. Yes, the face was different, thinner, more angular, his hair had lost all its curliness, he was taller and as skinny as a stick, his fashion sense had improved tremendously and he no longer wore that stupid scarf, but the look in his eyes was exactly the same. The Doctor. Rhydian began to laugh maniacally.

He was going to enjoy this very much.

It had been eight hours now and Wren still had not stirred even slightly, or even moved so much as Tal could tell. Then again, the Doctor hadn't moved much either it seemed. He was sitting by Wren's bedside, staring blankly. Tal felt sorry for him, he looked so terribly sad. It was sickening almost to think that that much sadness could be experienced by any one individual.

Tal entered the room cautiously, not wanting to upset him again. The Doctor didn't so much as even look her way, he just kept his eyes fixed on Wren. Tal sat silently beside him, with a tray of food in her hands.

"I brought you something to eat," she said in a small voice. "If you want it that is."

The Doctor finally looked over. He smiled, but it was a melancholy sort of smile.

"Thank you Talaith," he said, taking from the tray a cup filled with a hot, tea-like drink. After taking a sip, the Doctor closed his eyes and sighed, only just loud enough to be audible. "I'm sorry about before. I was... I don't even know what I was, but I was being awful."

"You were frightened," Tal said. "I'm frightened too. I... I don't want to die. Not now, not like this."

"I'm going to die soon," the Doctor said grimly. "Someone told me, 'he will knock four times,' then I'll die. Quite honestly... I don't want to go either."

"But can't you do the same thing as Wren did?" Tal asked. "Regenerate?"

The Doctor gave her a sad, heavy look.

"I'm still dying every time."

Tal frowned.

"Then I guess," she said slowly. "As long as we don't hear anyone knocking... we'll be fine then."

"One would think," the Doctor said, smiling sadly once again. He then looked down at his half filled cup. After turning it around in his hands a few times, his brow furrowed. "I wonder," he said more to himself than anyone.

"What?" Tal asked. The Doctor stood.

"Well, last time I regenerated, something like this happened. My friend... well it was her mother actually, bless her heart. She had this tea and... It just might work. In any case, it's better than sitting here!"

The Doctor went over to Wren and gently opened her mouth, bringing the cup to her lips and tipping it back slowly.

"Wait, Doctor. Why? What does that even do?"

"What, tea?" the Doctor said. "Nothing in particular, certain Time Lords have a fondness for it I guess. Bit if it has worked worked once, it can work again."

However, it appeared it hadn't. Wren didn't move. The Doctor watched her eagerly, but it seemed to Tal it was helpless. She was almost ready to reach out an shake the Doctor gently on the shoulder, to tell him that it had been worth a try a least, when Wren's eyelids fluttered.

"Wren!" he exclaimed, grabbing her by shoulders. Her eyes opened completely, and she looked up at the Doctor with a confused face.

"Where are we?" Wren asked. "The TARDIS?"

"No," he laughed "Oh no Wren, we're stuck on Antares Theta. Completely trapped! And it's going to be destroyed in a few hours time, wonderful no? But who cares, you're awake!"

"Awake?" Wren asked. "How long have I been out?"

"Eight hours," Tal answered, now approaching the bedside. The Doctor looked back at her, and Tal was relieved to see him actually smiling.

"Eight hours?" she asked in disbelief. "What are we waiting for? We need to dismantle that arc!"

Wren jumped out of the bed with extraordinarily agility, but before she could get very far the Doctor stopped her.

"Wait," he said. "There are some more pressing matters at hand."

Wren gave him a quizzical look, and he tilted his head in Tal's direction. The girl swallowed before explaining.

"He has Kerrick," Tal said. "I know he wasn't very nice to you, but he's my only friend. I need to save him. Please Wren, you have to help me."

"Besides," the Doctor went on. "I have a plan... somewhat."

* * *

_:/_

_I almost feel as if I've hit a wall somewhat, and that is frustrating. I know exactly how I want this story to end, but... I'm still not completely sure how I am going to go about getting there. It will be interesting, without a doubt, to find out._

_Also, I thought it would be interesting to make it so that the villain had met one of the Doctor's previous incarnations before, and since Tom Baker is one of my favorites I decided to go ahead and make it Four (by the way, I actually like Four's sense of style. XD)._

_Also, also I want to reiterate that WELSH NAMES ARE FREAKING COOL. lol, although, funny story here, I was going down a list of Welsh names (before I eventually decided upon Rhydian) and I came to Ianto and I literally thought "Hmmm, that sound like it might make a good Doctor Who name.*_

_DERP._

_However, in other news I now have.... *epic drum roll* ONE REVIEW!_

_(Please please please review)_

_Lots of love and pyschic brainwaves telling you to review this story, _

_Rei.  
_


	8. Chapter 7

_ So what are we going to do now? What did you mean when you told the Doctor that was only a fraction of its power? I thought that thing was a gateway to the past._

Rhydian kneaded at his temples, as if maybe somehow it would allow him to squeeze Kerrick out of his brain. The boy was getting more and more grating by the second, if that were even possible.

"It's a weapon," he growled. "That is what it was meant to be, before _they _got their hands on it. Now that I have it back I intend to use it."

Rhydian glanced over at the screen. The Doctor was still sitting at the redhead's bedside, his head in his hands. He rolled his eyes. How pathetic, he wasn't even going to attempt to fight back. Rhydian wasn't sure what had happened to the Time Lord in the thousands of years since he had seen him last, but whatever it was it had obviously caused him to go soft. It was pitiful.

_What are you going to use it on?_ Kerrick asked, now sounding worried. _You can't possibly use it on this planet, _we're_ here!_

"You idiot, _we _won't be here," Rhydian snapped. "We'll be far away, as will the arc."

_But what about Talaith?_

"What about her?" Rhydian said impatiently. "What does she mean to you? Nothing. The girl will die with the rest of them, and good riddance too."

_I can't let you do this! _Kerrick shouted inside his head. Rhydian laughed.

"And what are you going to do about it? You're inside _my _head now! You have no more control than the Doctor does, sitting there beside that bed. _I_ am the one in control, I am stronger than anyone on this pathetic planet!"

_No! _Kerrick cried. For a moment, Rhydian was shocked as he felt a sharp pain in is head, and then watched as his hands began to move of their own accord. Kerrick's accord. The boy was fighting back.

"Oh no, you're not getting the better of me!" he shouted, struggling against him. The boy's mind was strong, but Rhydian knew his was stronger. As they fought for control, Kerrick's body was flung several times across the room, flailing wildly and crashing into most likely sensitive equipment. However, it was a futile battle on the Alazarin's part. Not only did Rhydian succeed in stopping him, he had gotten exactly what he wanted, an excuse to crush Kerrick's mind into submission so that he would no longer have to bear the sound of his annoying voice. Rhydian smiled sinisterly as he rose.

"Much better," he said, seating himself once again in front of the screen. He looked back to the Doctor, who still hadn't so much as budged. Rhydian felt his anger flare.

"Oh come on!" he complained loudly. "It's no fun if you don't fight back! How depressed can one Time Lord get? Move already!"

It seemed the Doctor had heard him, because he stood and looked directly at the camera. Rhydian was surprised that the Time Lord even knew where it was, they were all invisible to the naked eye. It had to just be a coincidence. However, Rhydian didn't have much time to dwell on it, because there was obviously something very, very wrong. The Doctor was smiling. Laughing.

"What's so funny?" he shouted at the screen, now standing.

The Doctor pointed at something behind Rhydian's shoulder and very clearly mouthed "look behind you."

Rhydian did look. What he saw made him very, very upset.

"Are you sure this will work?" Tal asked anxiously. The Doctor had wasted no time in getting to work. He had already been aware of the the fact that they were being watched and had long since been fooling the camera with a loop feed, and now all that remained was to record a short message for their captor to be played at precisely the right moment. The Doctor and Wren could both tell that the girl was still absolutely filled with fear, and in an attempt to ease it somewhat the Doctor looked at her and smiled kindly.

"Of course it will Talaith," he said gently.

"My name is Tal," the girl corrected testily, and Wren smiled to herself somewhat, understanding completely. She hated being called "Lu-_cinda._" The Doctor ignored this however and went back tot the camera, made visible by the Sonic Screwdriver. Adding the finishing touches to his complicated rewiring, the Doctor jumped slightly as one of the wires sparked and singed his fingers. Immediately his first reaction was to stick them in his mouth, but after looking around for a second he immediately removed them.

"There," he said shaking his fingers a bit. "That should do quite nicely."

"So what do we do now, just march up to the security room and try to make him stop?" Tal asked.

"Well yes, that was the plan was it not?" the Doctor said hopping down from the chair he had been using as a step stool, smiling brightly. Tal gave him a scrutinizing look.

"How can you be so happy all of the sudden?" she asked.

"Because I have every reason to be. Now lead the way Tal!"

The girl took off, and the two Time Lords began to follow her, albeit at a markedly slower pace. Wren looked up at the Doctor, frowning.

"You lied," she said flatly. "You're just as filled with fear as she is."

"Well I can never keep a secret from you, can I?" he said looking at her with considerably more serious eyes.

"What is it?" Wren asked. "Why are you so afraid?"

"Because I-" the Doctor began, but then he faltered. Wren felt she knew what he was going to say anyways, considering the flood of emotions she had just felt. "Because I thought I had lost you forever. And if there's one thing I've come to discover, it's that I never want that to happen," the Doctor finished finally. Wren smiled and took his hand.

"I love you too," she said with a knowing smile. "We're going to make it out of here I promise." The Doctor swallowed. It had always been the one emotion his Time Lord brain would never quite allow him to express.

"Come on, we haven't any time to lose!" Tal shouted back at them, interrupting the moment. Wren looked up at the Alazarin queen, smiled to herself gently and then ran after the girl, the Doctor following behind her. They were like a team,the way her the Doctor and Davon had been. Wren thought that maybe thinking of Davon would make her sad, but somehow she wasn't. She was at peace. Was this incarnation just like that, calm and accepting? Wren wasn't quite sure, she supposed she would just have to find out.

When they had finally reached the doorway to the security room, the Doctor pushed ahead of Tal ans signaled to her to remain quire. Cautiously he approached the door and gingerly set his ear to it. There was the sound of some sort of struggle within, but from what the Doctor could tell there was still only one person inside the room. As he strained to hear better, the noise suddenly stopped. There was a moment's silence, and then the sound of Kerrick's voice again.

"Much better," he said. There was a creaking sound as whoever it was in Kerrick's body took a seat, and then suddenly the sound of angry shouting.

"Oh come on! It's no fun if you don't fight back! How depressed can one Time Lord get? Move already!"

Smiling to himself, the Doctor knew his time had come. Peering through the crack in the door, the Doctor aimed carefully and then set in motion the trap he had lay for his enemy. As he heard the body snatching whatever it was demand what was so funny, he knew the recording must be playing. Motioning for Wren and Tal to follow, the Doctor stood, waited until he was sure he had been seen and threw the door open.

"You honestly though I could just there and stand by as you destroyed an entire planet? Not terribly clever of you, if you don't mind me saying."

"This is impossible, I watched you one the screen! You're in her room, the redheaded Time Lady. You haven't left!"

"Really?" the Doctor said. "You must be seeing things, from where I'm standing it looks like I'm not there."

Rhydian looked over to the the screen and sure enough the Doctor was right. His face twisted into a mask of fury.

"Oh my, your mind must truly be betraying you," the Doctor said in an almost amused manner.

"You haven't changed at all Doctor," Rhydian said venomously.

"Oh, you've met me before?' the Doctor inquired musingly. "I wonder... you wouldn't happen to be Rhydian Maxwell then, the Svrouk-Vaën with the temper problem?"

"So what if I am?" Rhydian said angrily, confirming what the Doctor had suspected ever since he first had heard Rhydian using Kerrick's voice. "You were wrong Doctor, you told me I could never discover time travel. Stupid, elitist Time Lord. I proved you wrong, and now you're at my mercy!"

"Oh, I don't think so," the Doctor said. "As Wren so quaintly put it, all you're doing is punching holes in the universe, you have no idea where that thing leads. Not only that, but having the energy double as a weapon? Are you kidding me? Plus, I would hardly say that I'm at your mercy, considering we were able to get here without your knowledge. And if you truly are Rhydian Maxwell, we have a problem. You've overtaken Kerrick's body without his consent. That's a crime by the standards of your race, and one punishable by death."

"My race no longer exists, why should I have to follow their rules?" Rhydian demanded angrily. "You could never kill me anyways Doctor. You're a coward. You could never kill anyone."

"It's the ones who kill that are the cowards!" Wren interjected suddenly. The Doctor and Rhydian both looked at her, shocked, and so she went on. "It takes no courage to kill, it only takes the deepest fear and cowardice. Now leave Kerrick's body at once!"

Rhydian looked at her blankly for a moment. He smiled slowly and then began to laugh, quietly at first, then louder and louder. Wren did not like the laugh one bit.

"Oh," he said. "Gladly."

Immediately the Doctor was reminded of something, but before he could react Rhydian had already left Kerrick's body and entered Wren's. Kerrick collapsed into a heap on the floor and Tal ran to his side, but the Doctor was more occupied with what was happening in front of him. He watched in horror as Wren clenched her head in her hands and threw it about violently, then went eerily still.

"My, this is certainly an experience," Wren said, but the Doctor knew it wasn't her speaking. He grimaced. This was Cassandra all over again, only about ten times more threatening. "I've never been a woman before. It's rather... exhilarating."

"Get out of her right now," the Doctor demanded. Rhydian looked up at him slowly, filling Wren's eyes with cunning.

"Oh you naughty boy," he said. "This explains it all. You let yourself fall in love with her? No wonder you're so filled with fear. I can feel it, I can feel it all. Everything that's going on in your head."

Rhydian approached the Doctor, bringing Wren's face very close to his. The Doctor swallowed, looking at Rhydian's personality in Wren's sparkling lavender eyes, his own eyes filled with absolute loathing.

"You won't dare do anything to hurt her," Rhydian continued. "And far as I can see, there is only one thing you can do Doctor. You won't let me back into Kerrick... it goes against your infallible _principles_. And you will never let me stay in her, your feelings for her prevent that. So you have only one choice: You'll give me _your_ body, Doctor."

He now ran Wren's hand down the Doctor's face. The Time Lord clenched his teeth, seemingly unable to say or do anything. Kerrick grinned and laughed to himself.

"That's right," he said. "There's nothing you can do about it. Even your over sized Time Lord brain can't save you from this."

"Then stop talking and do it already," the Doctor said in a quiet, yet dangerous sounding voice. Rhydian, taken slightly aback, paused for a moment and gave the Doctor an odd look. However after a few seconds he broke into a grin once again. Almost mockingly he leaned in and closed Wren's lips over the Doctor's, allowing himself to slide out of her and into the Time Lord. Wren staggered back, stunned, and then realized with horror what had just occurred.

* * *

_Sorry about the long wait._

_That is... if you were waiting._

_WHY DOES NO ONE REVIEW THIS GOSH DARN STORY. T-T_

_Anyways, this took forever because I was completely and entirely writer's blocked. Watching the Doctor Who Ultimate Guide that was on after the Eleventh Hour definitely kicked me out of that, but then I got sick and couldn't really do anything for about a week. _

_So, you might have noticed from my description Wren looks a considerable amount like Amy Pond (or rather Amy Pond looks like her because Wren met the Doctor first. Although, Amy was born first technically... gosh darnit, time travel just confuses everything! XD). This is not entirely coincidental, though not exactly planned though because I decided what Wren's first incarnation looked like before Amy Pond even existed. Kinda weird to think I've been working on this concept for so long.  
_


	9. Chapter 8

"What's the matter Wren? It's only me."

Wren looked at the Doctor, terrified. It _wasn't_ him. The voice coming out of his mouth was all wrong, the accent, the feeling, everything. And then there was his emotions, or rather the lack of them. Wren was standing right there in front of him and she could feel absolutely nothing. Her blood ran suddenly cold.

_'Doctor, what have you done?' _she thought in horror.

"You're a very unique woman, Lucinda." Wren bristled at the sound of the name she hated so much. "Making a time Lord fall for you. Time Lords aren't exactly romantic beings you know- oh sorry, _weren't. _More than half of them were loomed into existence, created and then harvested, no need for a mother or father. And now there are none left. The Doctor is under my control and you... Well, you aren't really a Time Lord, are you?"

"Get out," Wren said, visibly upset now. "Get out of him right now, or you will regret it."

Rhydian merely looked at her and laughed that cruel sickening laugh that sounded so awful coming out of the Doctor's throat.

"I don't think I will," he said. "I like this body. It could theoretically last me forever, and as much as I hate to admit it, I'm far from bad looking. No, in fact I'm quite the opposite. And you can't even deny it, because I know you think so. Besides, where else would I go? I'd die without a body."

"Then die," Wren said. "Or I'll make you."

"Oh, you will?" Rhydian said, laughing maniacally. "That sounded an awful lot like a threat... to kill no less. This must mean you're a nothing more than a coward, according to your standards."

Wren glared at him. However, the Doctor's body spasmed randomly and Wren felt a twinge of pain. There was only one reason she would be feeling it, the Doctor had to be fighting back. He looked up at her, and Wren was jolted with a desperate sort of fear.

"Wren don't listen to him. Remember the plan!" Sweat was beading on his forehead as he struggled against Rhydian to remain in control for just a few seconds more, then suddenly Rhydian was back again.

"What was that?" Rhydian demanded of her. "What did he mean?"

Wren did not answer. Instead she ignored him entirely and went over to where Tal was at Kerrick's side.

"Is he okay?" she asked.

"Answer me!" Rhydian shouted. Again, Wren ignored him to focus on Tal, whose face was streaked with tears. Wren looked back to Kerrick and instantly knew why. The experience had been too much for his body to handle. He was dying.

"Who are you?" he asked Wren weakly. "Have we met?"

Kerrick was breathing very heavily, wheezing almost. Despite the fact that she hadn't like Kerrick, Wren was struck with deep sadness seeing him like this. And now because of the regeneration, he couldn't even recognize her.

"Alasheru?" he asked suddenly, and Wren was filled with an odd, cold feeling. Kerrick seemed to think she was the Goddess, and she didn't have it in her hearts to tell him otherwise.

"What is it Kerrick?' she said instead.

"I'm dying, aren't I? That's why you're here. Is Talaith still there? I can't see her."

"Yes, she is," Wren assured, but Kerrick seemed distressed.

"No," he said. "I can't see her. She's not here. I can't see. I can't..."

Kerrick grabbed onto her desperately and Wren felt tears fill her eyes involuntarily.

"I'm sorry," he said. "Tell everyone I'm sorry. Wren, the Doctor... Tal. I... I..."

It was getting harder and harder for Kerrick to breathe. Suddenly his grip on Wren went limp and it was eerily quiet. Wren's face was solemn and still. The boy was gone.

There was no sound for several minutes excepting that of Tal's sobbing. Wren drew herself up, her eyes focused on Rhydian standing there in the Doctor's body, and she was filled with a quiet sort of rage.

"There!" Rhydian said. "Now will you tell me?"

Anger crackled in Wren's lavender eyes. A much wiser man than Rhydian Maxwell would have given up right then and there.

"Do you know how crushing the knowledge of a Time Lord mind is?" she said rather unexpectedly. "A human brain can't handle it, if put into contact with one for too long their mind will literally burn to crisp."

"Why are you telling me this?" Rhydian asked nervously, but he already knew. Cold dread was beginning to set in.

"The entire time you were in my body, I was shielding you." she said. "Shielding you from the full brunt of what it means to be a Time Lord. The Doctor is doing the same right now. What do you think is going to happened when he stops?"

Rhydian swallowed, but he didn't have time to do much else before he screamed out in pain.

"No!" he shrieked. "Stop! Please stop!"

Wren just stared, unmoved, her face stern and stony the way the Doctor's often was when confronted with destruction.

"You brought this upon yourself," she said under her breath.

Rhydian clutched the Doctor's head and threw it about, writhing in pain. Wren could see the heat of the knowledge burning his mind seeping out through the Doctor's eyes. When she found it was too disturbing to continue watching, she merely closed her eyes. Eventually the screaming ceased and Wren dared to open her eyes. The Doctor was standing very still and very quiet, his head hung in what almost seemed like shame. His emotions were a mix of relief intermingled with sadness and revulsion, mainly for himself. He looked up at Wren and could see immediately how disturbing she found what she had just witnessed. The Doctor gave her a mournful look before coming over and embracing her tightly.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I'm so sorry."

"We just exterminated the last of an ancient race of people," Wren said shakily. "We killed him."

The Doctor said nothing, and merely held on tighter.

"Wren," he whispered.

"Don't."

"Wren, Tal needs us."

Wren finally looked up and she could see the Doctor was right. The poor girl was inconsolable. Wren, being no stranger to the incomparable pain of losing your best friend, went over and sat beside her silently. The Doctor had taught her that sometimes, that was all you needed to do. Tal eventually turned and buried her face in Wren's shoulder. After a very long time of sitting there, Wren picked up the small Alazarin and carried her off to bed. Another thing she had learned is that sleep was a powerful healer.

Later that night Wren lay on her back in the Doctor's bed, staring at the ceiling blankly, unable to sleep due to her racing thoughts (which for a Time Lord is saying something). She could feel the rising and falling of the Doctor's warm body next to hers, but the rhythm was too fast and not deep enough for him to be sleeping.

"Are you awake?" Wren asked, still keeping her eyes on the ceiling.

"...Yes," the Doctor admitted.

"Do you... do you think we did the right thing?"

Wren heard a deep sigh and the sound of him turning over on his side. She turned over as well, so now they were face to face.

"I don't know," he confessed.

"We saved an entire planet... millions of people, right?" Wren rationalized, a slight waver in her voice. "And we saved our lives as well."

"Hmmm..." was all the Doctor said. Wren bit her lip.

"You don't like it either."

"No," the Time Lord said plainly. "But these are decisions I have to make all the time. Who else would make them?"

There was a very long pause where the Doctor just looked at her. Suddenly his eyes flickered away and he laughed to himself.

"Now that this lovely trip is over, where do you think we should go next?"

"Wherever we want," Wren said with a smile. "Only preferably somewhere less dangerous."

"If you find me such a place, I'll gladly take you there," the Doctor said, grinning.

"I don't think such a place exists!" Wren laughed. "You'd get yourself into trouble anywhere!"

The light mood was interrupted abruptly by the most awful sound Wren thought she had heard in her life: four distinct knocks on the door. The Doctor bolted upright and froze, his eyes wide.

"No," he said in disbelief, staring at the door as if he were frightened of what could possibly be behind it. Wren swallowed, not daring to move. Again, the sound came this time accompanied by shouts.

"Doctor! Wren!" came Tal's voice. "Please open the door!"

Shocked, Wren jumped up and threw the door open.

"What is it?"

"Didn't you hear that?" the girl shouted. "The arc just went off again! It's going to explode!"

Fear jolted all through Wren's body, and it wasn't just her own. Without a moment's pause she took off, leaving the Doctor and Tal behind. Standing there still in complete shock, the Doctor suddenly realized just what it was that Wren was planning.

"Wren no!" he shouted, taking off after her. The Doctor was running like he never had before, his two hearts beating so loudly he could hear them outside his chest. As he turned corners into hallways and down stairs, every fiber of his being was filled with dread. She couldn't go through with something like this, it was too awful. The Doctor could now see Wren's deep ginger hair at the end of the hallway. She was standing before the arc, which was glowing the same shade of purple as before, only even brighter. The Doctor slowed his pace. She was crying.

"Wren-" he began frantically, but was halted when he walked headlong into the force field Wren had erected with her mind. The Doctor felt out the boundaries of the shield, trying to find a weakness of some sort, but to no avail.

"It won't work," Wren said, unable to look up at him. "I made sure there was no way you could make it through."

"Don't do this Wren." Tears were beginning to well in the Time Lord's eyes as well.

"I worked it all out," she said tearfully. "If something isn't done soon the entire planet will be laid to waste by the energy this arc generates. All the energy will be consumed if someone passes through it though. And if I use my _own_ energy from inside it, it will be sealed forever."

"No," the Doctor said desperately. "No, there has to be another way. There has to be another way!"

"There is no other way," she said, finally daring to look up at him. She immediately wished she hadn't. The look in his eyes would haunt her forever.

"You have no idea where it leads!" he shouted, his voice catching and then breaking. "You could be sent anywhere, you could die! And what about me then? Alone again?"

Wren just looked at him ruefully and his face twisted into fury as he turned around and violently kicked the wall, enraged.

"What have I done?" he shouted at the ceiling angrily. "What have I ever done to deserve this?"

The Doctor dissolved into tears of despair, burying his face in his hands and watching him,Wren felt sick to her stomach. She approached the force field and reached her hand through it in order to place it on the Time Lord's shoulder.

"Some on has to keep the balance," she said quietly. "To watch over the Universe. It needs to be you Doctor. You need to survive. Who will stand up for them if you don't? Who will look after them all? I knew I had survived Antares Beta for a reason, and that reason has become clear to me now. I needed to save you, so you can do this job."

"I don't want it anymore," the Doctor said. He looked up, and Wren felt the weight of his sadness almost crushing her. "I'm tired Wren, I'm so tired."

Wren swallowed and another tear slid silently down her cheek. Her lavender eyes locked with the Doctor's and she whispered the one thing she knew meant more than any thing she could say.

She said the Doctor's name.

The Doctor stared at her, unable to move. There was a suddenly loud crashing sound behind them, and Wren turned abruptly, reminded of the task before her. She began to back away slowly.

"I swear I'll find you, I promise," she said.

"Wren..."

"I promise!"

"...Wren!"

"I love you Doctor."

"WREN!"

She was gone.

_The Doctor opened his eyes suddenly, a cold sweat breaking out on his forehead. Shivering and wiping the beads of moisture away with the back of his hand, he tried to focus on the image of the redhead in his mind. He was dreaming about Wren more and more often lately, and it made him wonder._

_Where could she be now? The arc had left not a single clue as to its destination, and he not the slightest idea where Wren might have ended up. He didn't even know if he could recognize her if he saw her._

_'Or if she would even recognize me,' he thought mournfully, looking at his still awkward new hands somewhat sadly._

"_Are you okay there then?" came the lilting voice of a young Scottish woman._

_The Doctor looked up at the redheaded Miss Amelia Pond and smiled. She reminded him so much of Wren, from how she looked to her strong and fiery personality. He tried not to dwell on it too much, and exhaled deeply trying to drive the disturbing dream from his mind._

"_Yes, I just dozed off for a moment, that's all."_

"_Dozed off?" Amy said in mock uproar. "The savior of all human kind, dozing off? Oh, if only they knew!"_

"_You stop that now, it's a very exhausting job mind you!" the Doctor replied, smiling a bit. Deep inside he was really lamenting over the truth of that very fact. It was the most tiring job in the Universe in fact. The keeper of the balance..._

_Meanwhile, far away on a very distant planet a young woman with the most startling lavender eyes was staring at the night sky, remembering a promise she had made a very, very long time ago._

_

* * *

_

_I did it. I finished. I decided there was no way I could stretch this out any longer. I like it at the length it is. Sure, only 8 chapters, but each one is pretty darn long. Over 20,000 words in total... holy crap, this is the longest thing I've ever written.  
_

_Hmmm... maybe I could get it published as DW novel! XD _

_Wouldn't that be a laugh. I would predict lots of editing in my future. -_

_Thank you very much to TheGirlWhoWaited, my only reviewer! EVERYONE ELSE SHAME ON YOU. XD_

_(I'm kidding! I love you! Please, please, please review!)  
_


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